Toguchi v. Chung.

• Position: MEDICAL CARE - Brief Article

U.S. Appeals Court

MEDICATION

DELIBERATE INDIFFERENCE

Toguchi v. Chung, 391 F.3d 1051 (9th Cir. 2004). The estate of a prisoner who died in custody brought a civil rights action under the Eighth Amendment, alleging that a physician was deliberately indifferent to his medical needs. The district court granted summary judgment for the physician and the estate appealed. The appeals court affirmed, finding that the physician was not deliberately indifferent by treating the prisoner with a particular drug when she knew that he had been hospitalized years earlier for a negative reaction to the same drug. According to the court, the physician did not consider the use of the drug to pose a serious risk, since the prisoner had been administered the drug twice daily under the physician's care...